Food Sponsorship

Who is this toolkit for?

Food festivals are all about celebrating and enjoying food, bringing the community together.

Centuries ago, the food festival was a celebration of the harvest and an acknowledgement of the importance of growing and producing food. Whilst harvest time is less of a feature of our everyday lives, the celebration of good food, its quality, taste, smell, provenance, and even design, are more important to us than ever before.

You may be thinking of setting up a food festival for the first time, or are part of the organising committee of an existing event. Whatever stage you’re at, this toolkit is certainly worth a read.

These days are a little different to the food festivals of old. Our ancestors wouldn’t have been able to conjure the huge variety of different food available to today’s foodie, even in their wildest dreams. But beyond the cuisine, today’s food festival organiser has a plethora of things to think, conundrums to counter, and obstacles to overcome: from marketing and PR, to hygiene and legislation, to space and location, parking, evaluating and pricing. The list is endless. And then there’s the question of: how to fund it?

The aim of this toolkit is to help you understand the options that are available to fund and help organise your food festival using sponsorship. We’ll take a look at what sponsorship is, how to identify potential sponsors, the approach to take, developing a sponsorship proposal, and how to keep your sponsors happy, and on-board.